Tracy: Fast and furious

Some things never get old - like watching John Candy and Steve Martin in Trains, Planes and Automobiles.

Or like asking Paul Tracy why he isn't racing full time in the IZOD IndyCar series.

Because even at 41 years old, Tracy has as much fire in his belly to win again on the IndyCar circuit as he had 18 years ago when he strapped himself into a Chevrolet-powered Penske race car for his first go at the Indy 500 in 1992.

Maybe even more.

Which leads us to a media event Saturday in California at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, where Tracy will announce that American insurance giant Geico will be on the side of his No. 3 KV Racing Technologies Dallara at the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 in May.

He may also reveal the details of his deal to race at both the Honda Indy Toronto and the Honda Indy Edmonton this summer with backing from Honda and possibly the Canadian Armed Forces.

But all through the spring of this current racing season, Tracy has been popping off in colourful fashion about his frustrations at sitting on the sidelines while many lesser drivers have full-time jobs in the IndyCar series.

Tracy, is after all, still the winningest active driver - with 31 trips to the top of the podium - in IndyCars.

And even in a part-time role last year, he finished in the Top 10 at the Indy 500 and was in contention for wins at both Toronto and Edmonton.

So this year he is using his Twitter account to call to task IndyCar team owners and fans who support the series for backing drivers who come with big money but tiny resumes.

As has been the case his entire career, Tracy held nothing back on what he felt was wrong with open-wheel racing in North America.

In one exchange Tracy compared what IndyCar was doing to eating a particularly nasty lunch.

"If you want a sh-- sandwich, don't expect it to not taste sh---y," he said of the series. "If u want good racing tell them u want the good drivers!!"

In another blast at how IndyCar chooses its drivers, Tracy compared racing in today's world to prostitution.

"I think I'm going to change my name to John. I feel like a John," he tweeted. "Cuz every time I talk to a (IndyCar) team owner, they ask me for $$ like a hooker."

Just this week one IndyCar owner - Chip Ganassi - hit back in much the same fashion at the caustic Canuck. Ganassi was asked his opinion of Tracy's rants after Sunday's Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park.

"What the f@*#&'s the last thing Paul Tracy ever did in racing?" Ganassi shouted.

"That's what I want to know."

Tracy was quick on the retort however, suggesting that Ganassi look no further than last season's Indy 500 finish.

"I beat both his drivers (Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon) at Indy last year," Tracy said. "Is that current enuf for ya?"

In his defence, Tracy hasn't exactly been sitting poolside at Las Vegas digs getting a tan.

He just returned from a made-for-television race in which he drove one of the world's most expensive sports cars - a German-built $470,000 US Gumpert Apollo - up against an American-made GT Malan at Bisbee-Douglas International Airport in Arizona.

The show will be aired in July on SPEED-TV.

Finish lines

Steve Arpin, of Fort Frances, Ont., has got himself a two-race sponsorship deal with Mike's Hard Lemonade for his No. 55 Venturini Motorsports Chevrolet for Friday's Rattlesnake 150 at Texas Motor Speedway and next month's ARCA 250 at Talladega Superspeedway. The Texas race is live on SPEED at 7:30 p.m. EDT.